


Draw

by sg_wonderland



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-07 08:24:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10356276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sg_wonderland/pseuds/sg_wonderland
Summary: Jack is determined to win the SGC poker tournament-by hook or crook.





	

Sam frowned at the Jell-o selection and opted instead for something with real strawberries and pseudo-whipped cream before heading for Daniel. “Hey, scoot over.” She nudged a stack of books.

“Oh, sorry,” he carefully moved the books onto the chair beside him.

“Daniel, aren’t you eating?”

“Uh, maybe later.” His nose was planted firmly back in his book.

“So if you didn’t come to eat, why are you here?” She took his hand and placed an apple in it, knowing it would eventually wind up in his mouth.

“Jack. Ordered me to meet him here.”

“And you just started obeying orders?”

His blue eyes danced merrily over the book. “I obey every once in a while. You know, just to get a rise out of him.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Daniel jumped as Jack whispered behind him. “You eating?”

“Later.”

Jack snorted and hit the line, turning his nose up at the meat loaf before taking the baked chicken with a sigh, wondering if mashed potatoes were on Fraiser’s approved veggie list. For some reason, she had gotten a bee in her bonnet about his weight. And not just his, she frowned every time Daniel climbed on the scale. 

While she seemed to think Jack’s weight only went one way, Daniel’s tended to fluctuate wildly, depending on what was going on at the time. It was the reason supply had finally given up and just started giving him BDU’s that were too big for him.

Jack couldn’t see that much difference in his weight and Daniel’s until the doctor had wickedly pointed out the age difference before launching into a lecture about metabolism slowing down after a certain age. He’d been trying to ignore her without much success. 

Loading his tray with food, drinks and two sets of silverware, he honed in on Daniel. Sometimes, the only way to get him to eat was put it in front of him and take away all the distractions. Namely books, translations, etchings, sketchings, other linguists, Carter and his laptop.

He saw that Carter had already subtly starting sliding the chair holding his books out of his grasp. His new second in command went up another notch in his estimation. Lowering the tray onto the table, he nimbly grasped Daniel’s book out of his grasp.

“Hey! I was reading that!”

“And now you’re not. Eat. That’s one of those orders you should obey. And not just occasionally.”

“Colonel.” Ferretti spun a chair around backwards and planted himself at Jack’s elbow. “You know what time it is?” Daniel took advantage of Jack’s distraction and nicked his book back.

“Is this a trick question?” Jack muttered around a mouthful of potatoes.

“Last week in July. You know what that means?”

“It means a long stretch until my next paid holiday,” Jack replied.

“Poker tourney. Come on, O’Neill, I know you haven’t forgotten last year?”

“Um,” Jack suddenly took a serious interest in the food on his plate.

“What happened last year?” Sam sniffed a story here.

“O’Neill got kicked out of the tourney for cheating.”

“That was never proven,” Jack was clearly affronted by the threat to his honor.

“You had a mirror on your watch, trying to see into the other players’ hands.” Even Daniel laughed, earning him a black look which he simply ignored. “I guess SG-1 won’t be entering a player.”

“Good-bye, Ferretti,” Jack dismissed him coldly. And after he walked away, still grinning, Jack quizzed casually. “So, Carter, ever play cards?”

“No, sir, I can’t say that I have.”

Jack sighed as he eyed his other team mate. “Daniel, I don’t suppose you’ve ever played cards?”

“Yeah,” came the reply from behind a book.

“Whoa, Daniel, did you just say you played cards?”

“Um, yeah,” his eyes never left the book, which Jack promptly snatched.

“Daniel, you play cards? Poker?”

“What kind?”

“What?”

“Of poker. Texas Hold-em, five-card straight, five-card draw, seven card no-peek.” He arranged his face innocently. “Fool’s poker. You know, what kind?”

“Are you, Dr. Daniel Jackson, telling me that you play poker?”

“Yes, I, Dr. Daniel Jackson, am telling you, Colonel Jonathan O’Neill, that I play poker. Why?”

“Okay, my house tonight at seven.”

Carter handed Daniel her dessert with a slight sigh. “What’s that for?”

”Eat up, Daniel, I think you’re gonna need it.”

*

“Where the hell is he?” Jack handed drinks to Teal’c and Carter before flopping down with a beer.

“Sir, he’s not that late.” The door bell rang as Sam grinned. “And that’s probably him.”

“Daniel, where the hell have you been?” Jack groused as he opened the door.

“Mountain.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Big thing. East of here, you might have seen it a couple of times.”

“Funny boy. Get in here and show me your stuff.”

Daniel stopped dead. “That could be misinterpreted so many different ways.” Jack shoved a paper in his face. Daniel read it before shoving it back. “No.”

“No?”

“No. I’m not playing in a poker tournament.”

“Because?”

“For one thing, it’s reprehensible to take advantage of someone’s weaknesses. And because I don’t like gambling.”

“You haven’t actually proved you can play. And if you had read the fine print, you’d see that it’s for charity. Whoever wins the tourney, gets a free ride to Vegas and a stake in the military wide championship. That’s where the celebrity players turn up. Half the proceeds go to the USO and the other half to The Red Cross. So no money for Dr. Holier-than-thou Jackson.” Jack grinned when Daniel scowled.

“So what’s in it for you?”

”Me? Absolutely nothing.” Jack tried his best to look innocent.

“Yeah, right.”

*

If Jack had been betting on it, he would have said Carter would have been the player. With her mind, she could remember every card that had been played, was constantly figuring the mathematical averages of any given hand. 

The problem was she bet according to those averages. She didn’t take risks and was only willing to bet big when the odds were in her favor. It was obvious she didn’t believe in luck.

Daniel, on the other hand, he had pretty much figured for a lousy player. And he found just how wrong he was, when Daniel won consistently, little by little. He wasn’t a flashy player or a daring one. He just chipped away at the competition like water dripping on a rock until you lost your patience and made a mistake. 

And Jack had found that Daniel had an inscrutable face. His expression never changed whether he had a good hand or an awful one.

*

Six hours later, Jack and Daniel were the only two left at the table. Teal’c and Carter had left ages ago, with the barest of acknowledgments from the players. Jack cursed silently as he looked at his sparse pile of chips, compared to the towering stacks across the table. “Daniel? Why didn’t you tell me you were a shark?”

“So you calling or what?”

Jack shrugged. “What the hell, I’m all in.” He flipped over his trio of sevens.

Daniel was apologetic as he displayed his hand. “Sorry, Jack.” Jack stared at the straight before going into the kitchen for a bottle of Jack and two glasses. 

“Give, Daniel. I want to know where you learned to play like that.” They clinked glasses before killing them.

“One of the kids in care, his dad was a player.” Daniel’s brow furrowed. “Probably why he was in care, come to think of it.”

“He didn’t take your lunch money or anything?”

“Oh, no, the parents would never have allowed that. They actually played with us. It’s a very good way to learn math skills like adding numbers, figuring probabilities. And great for memory.”

“And the poker face.”

“Oh, that.” Daniel flushed as he threw back another drink. “One of the first things you learn in foster care is how to lie, only let people see what you want them to see.” He lowered his glass, only to have Jack catch his wrist.

“You wanna talk about it.?”

“Nah, its okay, I hadn’t really thought about it in years.” He lied smoothly.

 

*

Minutes after the start of the tournament, there was a buzz going around the commissary. There was a ringer at table twelve. And that ringer was Dr. Daniel Jackson. The first round of the tourney had started out with ten tables with five players at each table. Within an hour, Daniel’s table had drawn quite an audience. 

Players who were coming up in the tourney and were checking out the competition, and the plain curious. Jack realized the one thing he hadn’t counted on was how Daniel would perform in public. If the crowd bothered him, he never let on. He never twitched, didn’t sweat, didn’t panic.

His table was now down to him and one of Siler’s engineers. Although Jack had to admit Stokes was damn good, he could see that Daniel was getting to him. He was dragging each hand out until even the most patient of players was getting antsy.

Table twelve was the first to declare a winner. Jack gathered Daniel’s chips up for him, barely keeping up as Daniel hit the door. “Hey, where you going?”

“I’m out for awhile, right? I thought I’d get some work done.”

“You’re not gonna stay, watch the competition play?”

“No, just call me when I’m up.” With that Daniel strolled away. Jack shrugged and headed back to the tourney. When Ferretti quizzed him, Jack replied with an evil smile that Daniel wasn’t interested in checking out the competition. 

Come to think of it, Jack thought to himself, this might work out even better. So he let people think that Daniel wasn’t at all worried about the other players. The fact that it was the absolute truth only made it easier to sell.

 

*

Four hours and three rounds later, they were into the finals match, with only four players left. Daniel, Ferretti, Lisa Hernandez from the Army unit SG-7 and one of the gate techs, Stan. Two Marines had been summarily broken and dispensed with. The only reaction Jack had seen out of Daniel was a blush when Hernandez winked at him. 

She and Daniel had the largest piles of chips. Stan had a few more that Ferretti, who was barely hanging on. “Dr. J, I think you’re bluffing. So I’m gonna call you.” Daniel shrugged at the Marine and matched his ante. “Shit!” he bleated when Hernandez won the hand. Vacating his seat, he reached across to shake Daniel’s hand. “You give them Army boys hell when you get to the big tourney, right?”

“Hey,” Hernandez narrowed her eyes, “I’m still here.”

Ferretti just grinned. “Not for long, sugar.”

 

*

Daniel played passively, letting Hernandez deal with Stan and then it was just her and Daniel. Jack already figured that Daniel had no qualms about beating a woman. The commissary was packed, with both players having about the same number of fans. Most of the Marines were vocally backing Daniel, having switched from Ferretti when he crashed.

Jack glanced at the clock when Stan bowed out. Twenty-one thirty hours, he sighed, it had been a very long day.

*

Three hours later, it was plain who was going down and it wasn’t Daniel. He had confused her by unexpectedly betting big on the last hand and had won big. She was rattled and it showed. So when she got a good hand, unfortunately, that showed also.

“Bluffing again, Daniel?” She was flipping a chip through her fingers restlessly. He merely shrugged, his hands quiet, still. He wasn’t much of a talker when playing and didn’t indulge in the trash talking that some players favored. 

She’d already figured there was no way Daniel had the other four, with three showing on the table. So he wasn’t surprised when she went all in, using the fours showing to make a full house. Shoving in the pile he had counted out, practically daring her, he smiled briefly before he flipped his cards over slowly.

“Son of a bitch!” She hissed as she saw his last card. The room was silent for a few second until someone realized Daniel had just won. Then the cheers broke out, the walls seemed to reverberate. 

Standing, she reached across the table for Daniel’s hand. He offered his hand and she pulled him across and planted a big kiss on him. The decibel level doubled. “Nice doing business with you, Dr. Jackson. Can’t wait for you to ship with us.”

Daniel staggered backwards as she strolled out the door. “Jack? Whatever you do, never, ever sign off on me to go with SG-7.” 

*

“So, how much?” The celebration had ended and they were in Daniel’s office. He was perusing a book and Jack was playing with a slinky Daniel kept for emergencies.

“Hmm?”

“How much did you win on me?” Daniel quirked a brow as Jack couldn’t seem to meet his eyes. “Jack, I know you bet on me, I just want to see if I got good odds.”

“Good odds.” Jack was stunned. “You ...you bet on yourself?”

“Doh!” Daniel’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “I wasn’t betting on Ferretti, was I?”

Jack was still babbling. “Who?” He cleared his throat, tried again. “Who covered your bet?”

“General Hammond.”

“G...General Hammond.”

“Jack, you might want to get Dr. Fraiser to refer you to a speech therapist, you seem to have picked up a tendency to stutter.” Daniel’s eyes were wide and innocent.

“You bet on yourself and the general covered your bet. How much did you bet on yourself?”

“Two hundred. How much did you bet?”

“Five.” He muttered.

“Five dollars?” Daniel was affronted.

“Five hundred dollars. I bet five hundred dollars on you and I made a tidy sum. And how did you know we were betting?”

“Everyone knew, Jack. Even Teal’c bet after Dr. Fraiser explained it. By the way, she made enough to flesh out her vacation fund. Sam told me she won enough on me to paint her kitchen. And evidently she had a side bet with Ferretti so he’s going to be the one painting her kitchen.”

Jack was repeating himself again. “Carter and Ferretti had a side bet? I’m guessing she bet on you?”

“Evidently, Ferretti told her it would be a cold day in hell before he let some long-haired geek beat him at poker. And she told him to pack a snow-suit.”

A slow smile bloomed across Jack’s face. “You kicked his ass good, Daniel. Proud of you.”

“Thanks.” 

“Come on, how about I spend some of my windfall buying you breakfast? And we can talk about next year.” They walked out, Jack waiting as Daniel locked his office.

“You do know the problem with using a ringer is that it only works the one time?” Daniel pointed out as they waited for the elevator.

Jack thought. “Wonder if T would like to learn to play poker?”


End file.
